Court Asked to Allow Discovery, Impose Legal Hold on All Clinton Email Records

Contact: Jill Farrell, Judicial Watch, 202-646-5188
 
WASHINGTON, Oct. 7, 2015 /Standard Newswire/ -- Judicial Watch today released 789 pages of State Department ethics review documents concerning former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, revealing that at least one speech by Bill Clinton appeared to take place without the required State Department ethics approval. The documents also include a copy of Bill Clinton's draft consultant agreement with Laureate Education, Inc., which was submitted for ethics review by the State Department. But the State Department redacted the information regarding compensation and the specific services Bill Clinton was hired to provide to the controversial "for profit" education company. The documents were released as a result of a federal court order in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed against the State Department on May 28, 2013, (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:13-cv-00772)).

The documents include heavily redacted emails from 2009 about the review of a speech Bill Clinton was set to give to the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI). An April 1, 2009, email from then-State Department Senior Ethics Counsel Waldo W. "Chip" Brooks notes that the ethics review approval of the speech "was in the hands of Jim [Thessin] and Cheryl Mills. They were to discuss with Counsel to the former President. I do not know if either ever did."

A follow-up September 1, 2009, email to Brooks from a colleague asks, "[W]as there ever a decision on the Clinton request involving scrap recycling? Below is the last e-mail I have on it – I assume it just died since I don't have an outgoing memo approving the event …"

Brooks responds two minutes later:

"I think the decision was a soft call to Clinton's attorney and the talk did not take place. You might want to send an email to [Clinton Foundation Director of Scheduling and Advance] Terry [Krinvic] and tell her that you have a gap in your records because you were gone and wanted to know if the President ever did talk before ISRI?"

In fact, Bill Clinton spoke to the scrap recycling group on April 30, 2009, for a reported fee off $250,000.

The documents also include a request from Doug Band of the Clinton Foundation for an ethics review of Mr. Clinton's proposed consulting arrangement, through WJC LLC, with Laureate Education, Inc. The Obama State Department redacted key terms of the attached May 1, 2010, draft agreement, including Mr. Clinton's fees and the nature of Mr. Clinton's services.

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